The Southern States of North America contains rewritten and rearranged essays from the Massachusetts journalist Edward King originally published in Scribner’s Magazine under the title The Great South, with additions and new engravings by James Wells Champney. Taken from King’s travels in the American South during the Reconstruction period, the essays provided readers with a description of the former Confederate States and their progress in the decade since the end of the American Civil War. While the text offered detailed descriptions of the places visited and the people met, King’s narrative is filled with prejudicial and pejorative language regarding newly emancipated African Americans. His essays also declared that Reconstruction efforts of the American government had failed. These arguments influenced Southern politicians who, over the following decades, introduced segregation policies that would not be revoked until the mid-twentieth century.